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Didcot Parkway - Oxford rail line shut until 'late April' for viaduct checks

BBC Nuneham ViaductBBC
Engineers are carrying out an urgent inspection of the river bridge

Rail services between Didcot Parkway and Oxford face disruption for several weeks as checks continue on a viaduct.

The Nuneham viaduct near Abingdon, which carries the rail line over the River Thames, had to be closed on Monday for an urgent safety inspection.

Network Rail said monitoring equipment had detected "increasingly significant movements" of the viaduct despite recent stabilising works.

The rail firm said it expected the line to "remain closed until late April".

The bridge crosses the River Thames between Culham and Radley.

Steve Daniels Nuneham viaductSteve Daniels
Nuneham viaduct carries trains across the River Thames in Oxfordshire

It carries CrossCountry, Great Western Railway services and also freight trains to and from Southampton Docks.

Maggie Simpson OBE, director general, Rail Freight Group said: "Every day we run around 40 freight trains on that route. That's the equivalent of around 2,000 lorries.

"Those trains are carrying vital and important goods, retail products - the things we buy in the shops every day, imports, exports, even finished cars."

The freight trains are expected to be diverted via west London.

Ms Simpson added: "Container trains... the big metal boxes... can only go on certain routes.

"It's absolutely the worst case scenario to put those goods on a lorry and we're trying to avoid that."

Network Rail Freight trainNetwork Rail
The route is used by freight trains to and from Southampton Docks

David Davidson, Network Rail's interim Western route director, said: "We are disappointed that the work we've done so far hasn't been successful and our efforts haven't been helped by the wettest March in over 30 years.

"Safety is our top priority and our engineers are now working round the clock to identify what can be done to make this viaduct safe for passenger and freight trains to run again."

Crosscountry Trains and Great Western Railway (GWR) said buses would replace trains during the line's closure.

Shuttle buses are currently running between Radley and Appleford, with a shuttle train service being introduced "in the next few weeks", GWR said.

Travellers are being urged to check their journey before they travel.

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